A headwear such as a cap has a soft fabric crown sewn of several sections of fabric and a visor that protects the eyes from the sun. Some special order caps are made to fit the wearer in specific sizes but most of them are products of mass production which has a plastic extender in the center back for adjustment to fit all.
The manufacturing of a cap for example is rather complicated and involves at least 10 steps. To demonstrate, a cap is a collective work of various departments in the line of production. To start with, the fabric layers are cut by fabric-cutting saw to form panels. Mesh acting as a stiffener is put against the back of the panels before the panels are sewn to one another. The sections of the soft crown, generally of long triangular shaped gores are sent to the eyelet department where a machine pierces each panel creating a small hole. The holes are bound completely with thread. Front panels of the cap are sent to the embroidery department to receive embroidery. A computer driven embroidery machine embroiders a logo or an entire word onto one or two of the front panels. Some logos require 31,000 stitches. The panels of the crown, generally either six or eight panels are then sent to the sewing department where they are stitched together. With stiffening and logo, these panels are heavy to sew through. It requires human skill with industrial grade sewing machine to sew the panels together. The beanie is then sent to the binders or the binding department where the raw seams of the soft crown are covered or hidden. A binding tape may be applied over the raw edges of the crown to conceal them. This tape gives the hat a finished look. A self-covered galvanized steel button is placed at the dead center of the cap on top of the beanie crown where all the sections of the cap converge.
The visors are formed from layers of material and usually include a stiffener. The base panels are die-cut to the desired size and then sewed onto the cap. Stiffeners may be placed between the two panels to stiffen the visor. Thereafter an adjustable plastic band may be provided at the back of the cap. Finally a sweatband of some sort is sewn onto the inside of the cap. Further steps may be added to produce a preferred product. For example, some may steam the finished product to ensure the durability. Some may stitch along different edges to avoid curling.
These steps are specific to a baseball cap. Different settings are required for making different types of headwear. Re-organizing the factory to provide the required settings is time consuming and costly. Special machines may be required to produce certain types of headwear. It may not be economical to invest in such a machine if the demand is small. As such handmade headwear is still indispensable and available at a premium.
The invention seeks to eliminate or at least to mitigate such shortcomings by providing a new or otherwise improved method of manufacturing a headwear.